The Click-through Generation

The ability to get anything you want anytime you want has created a new generational mindset: the click-through generation.

This mindset comes from the Internet’s ability to deliver any product or service with just a few clicks of the mouse. Need an answer to a question? Search engines—in just a few seconds—filter through the Internet to give you the answer. Need to buy something? Anything, from a kitchen sink to a diamond ring? Amazon.com can ship it to you. Countless downloads are completed every day, from programs to movies to music.

This is instant convenience. This is what is demanded in today’s strategy-driven economy.

The printing and publishing industry did not understand this and continued to market their services along the same methodologies of quality, service and pricing. Year after year for the past 10 years, printers and publishers have gone out of business using this tired paradigm. They are being replaced by either legacy printers who changed to the new dynamics or new communications services corporations who seized the opportunity to deliver what the market now wants: instant order and delivery with continuous control over the final product.

Once the domain of those mysterious craftsmen, printing and publishing has been packaged into software applications and those smart enough to figure this out can’t keep up with their project workload.

When iTunes started to become popular, there were a large number of technology and music experts who said that it would fail. They also said this wasn’t fair to the music industry. Meanwhile, Apple sold millions of tunes and has never looked back. So much for the experts. In the publishing industry the same thing has occurred. What was once the domain of traditional publishers has now become the domain of authors throughout the world.

Tom Marin is the managing partner of MarketCues.com and provides corporate and brand strategy to organizations of all sizes. He has an extensive background in the graphic arts, printing, publishing and media industries. Marin is an accredited member of the national and international chapters of the Business Marketing Assn., is a (CBC) certified business communicator and a past marketing chair of the Chicago chapter.